Birds

Geese and a Gull at Jamaica Bay

November 10, 2008 by Corey 8 Comments

When the sun is shining and it is in the fifties on the Fahrenheit scale on a Sunday  in November I’ll be birding.  Of course.  Jamaica Bay was where I wanted to be, mostly because I wanted to get some shots of the waterfowl flying from the West Pond to the bay with the sun behind my back.  I was hoping to get some ducks, but I ended up with geese.  Not that getting geese flying over head is bad, but I’m getting a bit tired of Brant and would like to share some shots of something else…

Then again, when the Brant have lost virtually all fear of flying past people, and do so at low altitude directly in front of you at close range with the sun behind you like in the picture above, well, you really can’t complain.

The Snow Geese were nice too…

Some Buffleheads and Hooded Mergansers flew past as well, but they fly low and fast and by the time I saw them it was too late to get them in the frame.  The Herring Gull below flew by at an almost leisurely pace, adjusting his clamsights before dropping the clam on the gravel path in an unsuccessful attempt to break it open.

Of course, I saw a bunch of other species (48 total), but I figured I would focus on the birds in flight in the sun in this post…I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.